nightkin

As far as PotD toughest battles compared to the level I was able to achieve prior to the encounter, this still isn't the hardest to me. The thugs in Gorecci St, the dig site, and the shrine outside of Crookspur were all ones I had to either return to later or find someway to avoid. In terms of just grinding the enemy down Nemnok was the toughest. I never tried to fight the dragons. I might this playthrough, There was one other I can't remember, but they were self healing faster than I could do damage. THAT's frustrating. The Lich was harder for me than the fampyrs. Oh, and the Woedica Temple where Oswald was kidnapped. I jumped on that way too early in my career because I wanted Konstentine's room. Tip: don't trigger that encounter and decide to return after resting. Oswald bites it then. Luminous lobster and Capt Banquet didn't work 100% for me, though. I also had to take "Reduce negative affects" precautions so my time spent charmed was at least minimized. Joe Yes, strength through enemy packs can be a hassle in the beginning, I agree. Gorreci Street is a good example. For these I got myself a chanter to help with CCs. Also tricking enemies helps a lot. In Oathbinders Sanctum (Oswald) I used Cpt. Stinkfeathers (Ishiza) to first trigger the dialogue sequence while rest of party remained in hide, then triggered combat and lured all enemies into the room on the opposite side of the hall. By the time they had caught up to him my party had already ambushed the last who passed by, cutting their numbers so tanking+killing them when their focus shifted to the rest of my party was way easier. Lich is nasty, but it's only this 1 character. I actually found the fampyrs to be a harder fight. @ Answermancer: good point, thx! At the time of writing this I had not fully realized how Resistance and Immunity work. Hence my madness about "They shielded their eyes 'gainst the fampyrs gaze".

This. Joining either of the factions for the final quest had me seriously thinking over and in the end - I took the (for me) most unlikely course and ended up siding with Aeldys, cause it sounded like noone would finally win and I honestly felt noone deserved to. And by what the game made me learn about the world, Adra, the deadfire, I didnt feel bad for chosing this rather bad ending, even on my goodie-2-shoes character. I like how certain choices lead to certain effects later in the game, for instance how you deal with Benweth will decide on where and in which state you can meet Aeldys if you start the principis final quest-series. Or that the events at the watershapers guild can actually make you lose the opportunity to side with the Huana completely if you choose a certain path in the quest and then make a wrong choice when facing Onekaza afterwards. I also agree on the really tough choice on which ending you choose. Weirdly enough the Valian Ending seems to be one of the better choices, as from what I grasped, the upwind to animancy this will bring - which certainly had adarker touch to it in POE 1 - will make Kith overall come closer to the power of the Engwithans than any other ending, thus making the course of Eothas' actions less of a threat somehow. But the sheer fact that this unexpected good they can bring is rather a sideeffect of their leader's blatantly open primary motives - plain greed - made me doubt that decision. Even though I tended to believe in Castol's honesty, even when this was overshadowed when reading Beza's notes, or finding the huana in front of the VTC's office. No need to talk about RDC, they are the borg, period. Last time a game had me go over my choices several times were FO:NV and ofc W3, so at least to me the main plot's writing is good. Also the character design - Xoti and Tekehu seemingly polarize people pretty damn hard- which to me is just a sign of a deeply carved out character. I ended up liking both, while hating others. Party banter is another thing. I could really grasp why some characters ended up getting along with eachothers while others didnt. And I can agree with Xoti in hating Pallegina. I feel like I'll drift even further OT from here no matter what, so TL:DR, I agree with OP and REALLY like the games writing.

I've seen this has been adressed in 1.2B -> Please look into it when dealing with fampyr-targets. In Splintered Reef many Fampyrs couldn't be hit by the ability anymore (No DPS, No Kill), they didnt even have a hit-chance-indicator when targetting the spell. Weird part is that while in the quartermasters chamber everybody but the "boss" got directly slain in a single cast, while when moving up to the laboratory, not even the regular fampyrs could be HIT. Same for the 4 fampyrs on the entrance to the crypt, no hit indicator, no damage dealt, no kill.

I just had the toughest POTD-fight ever in Splintered reef with those 4 damn fampyrs who kept gazing my party to death. "Defiant"-Headpiece (the one you get at start) -> doesnt help against gaze-attacks, cause the gaze targets INT instead of PER. Weird, but OK. "potion of focused mind" on all direct-attack-chars-> didnt help much, just helped with keeping friendlyfire in control a bit, since my party got "charmed" instead of "dominated" "They Shielded Their Eyes 'Gainst the Fampyr's Gaze" - see above. Got me properly mad I have to admit, since the name suggested something else. "Suppress Affliction" used by priest + party (rings) -> helped only for as long until the next dot-tick or hit occured, then allegiance was shifted again "Liberating Exhortation" used by MC -> Didnt seem different for me than "Suppress Affliction", so I saved the resources for DPS. Error on my part? "Dismissal" - No effect on the fampyr at all, no kill, no damage. Dont even get a hit-indicator. My party is all LVL 20, all other targets explode on the spot -> New Bug after 1.2B? Winning this was somehow a relief when it worked finally but before it was rather infuriating...

Sooo, your point is that if someone KNOWS where the good stuff is and KNOWS what's required and how to specifically boost his character starting straight from creation to be able snatch it, he just can do it and all that stops him from becoming stronger too fast is a little self-control on his own part? Wow. Look, your point is, getting good loot can be too easy if you play cheesy, which will break progression, BUT: so is taking beraths blessings (not judging, running them myself atm) so is purposefully creating a very strong character/party by using pre-designed builds from this forum's threads that you may not have come up with yourself Stuff you find there is not universally useful to every char or party You're free to just buy the stuff regularly once you can stem the paywall. Or ignore the stuff entirely. Or let some psychic Bleakwalker pay a visit to Crookspur, explaining everybody there in-depth his stance on slavery, using their entrails as visual aides. A newbie wouldn't know where the stuff is and if they look it up before playing -> they only have themselves to blame for the spoilers and breaks of immersion+progression What exactly do you intend OBS to do here? Teach you (and others) some self-control? A 15 lock is enough to stop most parties at the beginning from obtaining the stuff. The rest just want it too bad and this also has to be factored in. PS: I think you fell for a troll attempt when agreeing looting Splintered Reef would also be too easy. PPS: It's not for free. Pay your crew, maggot!

Just in case this is still being looked into - I have the same bug going on when using xoti as a companion and casting "dismissal". It is clearly not limited to a specific location. The only instance where it worked properly so far is the forest where you obtain the "Sanguine Greatsword". I could cast dismissal there and it properly functioned (a fampyr target was slain on the spot, as intended). After this it never worked properly again, as in all other locations where I encountered Vessels, so far including "Forgotten Catacomb", "hall of Unseen" and "Poko Kohara" (prior to entry) it "worked" just as OP described. Enemies became untargetable, yet kept fighting my party, keeping them in combat status. The result is 100% reproducable, the only way to avoid is not to cast the spell. PS: Hall of Unseen was especially awful.